Fraud 101: How to steer clear of the cyber sharks

A money mule is basically someone who allows their personal information to be used by a fraudster in return for payment. Criminals use mules as go-betweens to launder their illegally obtained funds (cybercrime, drugs or human trafficking) through various methods. Money mules can be recruited wittingly or unwittingly through reliable-looking job advertisements such as “financial agents” or “money transfer agents”. Often, these job offers are work-from-home setups promising high commissions without the need for specialised education. The websites of the alleged companies look very credible and serious. Once recruited, the mules receive and withdraw funds via their own bank accounts and forward them to other mules. Mostly this happens via bank transfers, but it can also happen physically through letters, parcels or other services. In some cases, the mules will just be asked to open a bank account in their names and share their details with the fraudsters. Some mules don’t realise that their account is a mule account: Maybe they are just “guilty” of having shared their credentials with a third party, who then will change the account info and login in order to be able to control the account and use it for money transfers.
Trust us, we know that humans can be weak. Maybe you are going through a rough patch in your life or you are in urgent need of money, and before you even know it, you become part of a whole criminal system. Always take one step back, breathe and ask yourself if the offer sounds like a dream. If the answer is yes, hands off!
Yuh pro tip: Never share your credentials with anyone; you might never be able to retrieve them. Also NEVER SHARE a verification SMS. This is a piece of security that is sent to you precisely to make sure you really are who you claim to be. If you share it with third parties, they can pretend to be you.

Here is the classic scenario for this kind of scam: Imagine you finally find that iconic vintage sweater you have always been looking for on Facebook Marketplace and you contact the seller right away. Of course, the item is still available and the seller asks you to pay upfront. However, once you do the money transfer, the item you paid for will never reach your mailbox. It also works the other way round: You list an item on Facebook Marketplace and someone is interested in buying it. Since you want to get rid of your item, of course you are up for the deal. They claim they will send the cash via DHL, Fedex or a similar service and a courier to collect it. To receive your payment, they ask you to fill in a quite legitimate-looking form of the courier service by clicking on a fraudulent link. And bam, scammers got what they wanted: your identity and/or maybe your bank details.
Recently, we’ve seen similar scams using the TWINT payment app. In this case, the scammer is interested in one of your items and suggests using PayPal to pay for it. So far so good, but soon after the scammer calls you (usually from a foreign phone number) pretending to be PayPal. The fraudster confirms that the transfer has been made and asks you for sensitive information such as your debit card number, 5 digits of your IBAN, your date of birth and your PIN code – basically all the information needed to create a TWINT account. While the wolf in sheep’s clothing keeps you on hold for a few minutes, he logs into TWINT using your details but a different phone number. Before you know it, the money in your account disappears.
Another kind of marketplace scam can be counterfeit items. It’s weird if the designer bag costs you only 50 CHF. In this case you just need to put aside your FOMO.
Yuh pro tip: Be extremely careful with items that seem to be a bargain. Also, if you expect to be paid, always go through the official channels. If you are asked to enter your card number for an item you want to sell, it’s already a massive warning sign. Think about it: You usually enter your card number to pay someone, not to receive money, right? The same goes for peer-to-peer payments (e.g., via Yuh or TWINT) – never transfer money to people you don’t know. You don’t want to end up never receiving your merch, or having your data misused.

What you are dealing with here is a person who pretends to be a company or a bank. They usually pretend to be able to give you instant credit at highly favourable rates. Credit at highly favourable rates? Right away you should be sceptical. However, they might ask you to open an account at, let’s say, Yuh and share the login information in order to transfer you the money (which obviously will never happen). Another scenario could be that the scammers promise you a guaranteed and unusually high return on the money you send them. In this case they would ask you to send money to an external account (mostly abroad). Sounds amazing? What will happen the moment you hit that «Transfer money» button in your banking app is that you will never see your money again and that the so-called banker will disappear into a black hole. But there’s also a more cunning version of this trap: To gain your trust, the fraudster might send you back the original sum plus the promised return. As soon as you send a larger sum, you will never again see any money back. Keep in mind one general rule to avoid a mental breakdown: In economics, it is impossible to systematically guarantee a high return. Anyone trying to convince you of the contrary is simply lying.
Yuh pro tip: If you find a financial deal, talk about it around you and ask for a second opinion. Whenever in doubt, you can call your financial provider’s customer care.